Dr. Mark Houston talked about cardiovascular disease and inflammation – “the evil twins”. He presented this lecture at the 24th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine (Dec. 9-11, 2016) in Las Vegas. Dr. Houston is an associate clinical professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical School in Nashville, TN 37232.

New thinking about cardiovascular disease and inflammation

Dr. Houston pointed out that the old thinking about cardiovascular disease has to be replaced with the new thinking. Here are a number of points regarding the new thinking.

Coronary heart disease and congestive heart failure are diseases of inflammation. They are also coupled with oxidative stress, vascular immune dysfunction and dysfunction of the mitochondria.

In the past it was difficult to reduce these cardiovascular diseases. With the new thinking there are now new treatment approaches that help cure cardiovascular disease.

The development of heart disease has a long history. Endothelial dysfunction predates coronary artery disease by many years. This is followed by vascular smooth muscle dysfunction. Inflammation develops and structural changes occur in the small and larger blood vessels with atheromatous deposits (plaques) and final occlusion, at which point you get a heart attack.

Canadian physician Sir William Osler has already stated more than 100 years ago “A man is as old as his blood vessels”.

The old thesis was that cholesterol would lead to deposits that close coronary blood vessels and cause heart attacks. Dr. Houston called this the “cholesterol-centric “ approach. The truth is that with conventional blood tests you are missing 50% of all the high-risk patients that are going to develop heart attacks. They are missing the ones that have chronic inflammation, but normal cholesterol levels.

What was not known in the past was that oxidative stress associated with normal aging can lead to chronic low-grade inflammation. This oxidative stress leads to mitochondrial DNA changes. Associated with it are biochemical changes that cause chronic inflammation, which in turn will affect the lining of the arteries. There is a metabolic change described in the literature as metabolic syndrome, which leads to high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and eventually heart attacks and strokes. The key today is to include in screening tests all parameters that will predict who is at risk to develop a heart attack or not.

Blood tests to screen for cardiovascular disease and inflammation

Blood tests and health history should be checked for dyslipidemia, high blood pressure (hypertension), hyperglycemia, smoking, diabetes, homocysteinemia, obesity etc. Also, patients with high GGTP (gamma-glutamyl transferase) levels in the blood are more at risk to develop diabetes. This in turn leads to inflammation of the arterial wall and heart attacks. There are 25 top risk factors that are associated with all causes for heart attacks.

The speaker stated that he includes a hormone profile and vitamin D levels. He does biochemical tests to check for mitochondrial defects. Micronutrients are also checked as cardiovascular patients often have many nutritional deficiencies. Inflammation is monitored through testing the levels of C-reactive protein (CRP).

In order to assess the risk of a patient Dr. Cohen, a cardiologist has developed the Rasmussen score, which is more accurate than the Framingham score.

The following tests are performed on the patient: computerized arterial pulse waveform analysis (medical imaging), blood pressure at rest and following exercise and left ventricular wall of the heart by echocardiography. Further tests include urine test for microalbuminuria, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP, a measure of congestive heart failure), retinal score based on fundoscopy, intima-media thickness (IMT, measured by ultrasound on the carotid artery) and electrocardiogram recording (EKG).

Here is what the Rasmussen score means:

Disease score 0 to 2: likely no heart attack in the next 6 years

Disease score 3 to 5: 5% likely cardiovascular events in the next 6 years

Disease score > 6: 15% likely cardiovascular events in the next 6 years

Non-intervention tests to measure cardiovascular health

1. The ENDOPAT test

With this test the brachial artery is occluded with a blood pressure cuff for 5 minutes. Endothelial dysfunction is measured as increased signal amplitude. A pre- and post occlusion index is calculated based on flow-mediated dilatation. The values are interpreted as follows: an index of 1.67 has a sensitivity of 82% and specificity of 77% to predict coronary endothelial dysfunction correctly. It also correlates to a future risk for coronary heart disease, congestive heart disease and high blood pressure.

2. The VC Profile

This test measures the elasticity of the arteries. There is a C1 index that measures the elasticity of the medium and smaller vessels and the C1 index, which measures elasticity of the larger arteries and the aorta. The smaller the numbers are, the less elastic the arterial walls.

3.The Corus CAD score

This is a genetically based blood test. The score can be between 0 and 40. If the score is 40, there is a risk of 68% that there is a major blockage in one or more coronary arteries.

4. Coronary artery calcification

The CAC score correlates very well with major event like a heart attack. There is a risk of between 6- and 35-fold depending how high the CAC score is. The key is not to wait until you have calcification in your coronary arteries, but work on prevention.

Treatment of cardiovascular disease and inflammation

When heart disease is treated the doctor needs to address all of the underlying problems. It starts with good nutrition like a DASH diet or the Mediterranean diet.

Next anti-inflammatory and other supplements are added: curcumin 500 mg to 1000 mg twice a day, pomegranate juice ¼ cup twice per day, chelated magnesium 500 mg twice per day, aged garlic 1200 mg once daily, taurine 3 grams twice per day, CoQ-10 300 mg twice per day and D-ribose 5 grams three times per day. This type of supplementation helps for chest pain associated with angina. On top of this metabolic cardiology program the regular cardiac medicines are also used.

Additional supplements used in the metabolic cardiology program may be resveratrol 500 mg twice per day, quercetin 500 mg twice per day, omega-3 fatty acid 5 grams per day, vitamin K2 (MK 7) 100-500 micrograms per day and MK4 1000 micrograms per day. In addition he gives 1000 mg of vitamin C twice per day. This program helps in plaque stabilization and reversal and reduction of coronary artery calcification.

Case study showing the effect of metabolic cardiology program

Here is a case study of a heart patient that was treated by Dr. Houston. He was a white male, first treated for congestive heart failure as a result of a heart attack in June 2005. Initially his ejection fraction was 15-20%. His medications were: digoxin 0.25 mg once daily, metoprolol 50 mg twice per day, ramipril 10 mg twice per day, spironolactone 25 mg twice per day and torsemide 20 mg once daily. These medications were kept in place, but the metabolic cardiology program was applied in addition. Here are the results of his ejection fraction (EF) values after he was started on the metabolic program:

Conclusion

Testing for heart disease risk has become a lot more sophisticated than in the past, and the tests have opened up a window to early intervention. Metabolic cardiology is a new faculty of cardiology that assists in the reversal and stabilization of heart disease. It will help high blood pressure patients and stabilizes diabetes, which would otherwise have deleterious effects on heart disease. Metabolic cardiology improves angina patients. It also prevents restenosis of stented coronary arteries. As shown in one clinical example reduced ejection fractions with congestive heart failure will improve. This was achieved solely through the metabolic cardiology program.

As usual, prevention is more powerful than conventional treatment later. To give your cardiac health a good start, don’t forget to cut out sugar, exercise regularly and follow a sensible diet.

Matthew Andry, MD talked about the effects of metformin on the gut microbiome. This talk was delivered at the 24th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine. The congress took place from Dec. 9 to Dec. 11, 2016 in Las Vegas. A lot of the sessions that I attended dealt with the gut flora and how it affects our health. This talk belongs to the theme of what a healthy gut microbiome can do for us.

History of metformin

Dr. Andry is a clinical associate professor of the Indiana School Of Medicine.

He pointed out that metformin has been used for a long time for type 2 diabetes, particularly, if fasting insulin levels are high. Metformin is a biguanide, which was isolated from French lilac (also known as Goats Rue). In the middle ages this herb was used to treat “thirst and urination”. In retrospect we recognize these as symptoms of diabetes. Chemists were able to synthesize the active ingredient in this herb in the 1920’s. Since then it is known as metformin. Dr. Jean Stern was able to show in the 1950’s in clinical studies that Glucophage, the brand name of metformin was able to reduce blood sugar without raising insulin levels. Between 1977 and 1997 metformin enjoyed wide spread acceptance for treating diabetics. Several clinical investigators demonstrated that diabetic patients on metformin lived longer and had less heart attacks than patients who were treated otherwise.

Metformin is the first-line drug in the treatment of type 2 diabetes in children and adults. It is one of the most widely prescribed drugs throughout the world with 120 million prescriptions per year.

Off-label use of metformin

There are many other clinical conditions for which metformin have been found to be beneficial. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), obesity, prediabetes, metabolic syndrome and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis are a few examples of off-label use of metformin. Metformin is also used as an anti-aging agent as it was found to elongate telomeres, which helps people to live longer. Metformin has been identified as a possible cancer prevention agent. In prostate cancer it was found to have an effect against prostate cancer stem cells. Without these cells prostate cancer does not recur after surgical removal.

Action of metformin

Metformin increases the action of an enzyme, AMPK, which leads to lipid oxidation and breakdown of fatty tissue (catabolism). In the liver the metabolic pathway of making sugar from fatty acids, called gluconeogenesis is inhibited. Metformin causes increased uptake of sugar into skeletal muscle tissue. This is the reason for the previously mentioned stabilization of blood sugar. Metformin has two beneficial effects on the liver. First it stabilizes insulin sensitivity. This means that a given amount of insulin has a larger effect on the liver. Secondly metformin decreases the toxic effect of fatty acids on the liver tissue. In other words metformin has a healing effect on non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a precursor to fatty liver and liver cirrhosis. Metformin also has an effect on the appetite center in the brain. It helps many obese and overweight people, but not all to lose weight. The mechanism for that effect is in the hypothalamus, where the appetite center is located. The neuropeptide Y gene expression in the hypothalamus is inhibited by metformin leading to reduced appetite.

Finally, metformin also normalizes the gut flora. This last point was the main focus of Dr. Andry’s talk.

Metformin and the gut

An animal experiment on mice showed in a study published in 2014 that metformin was stimulating the growth of a beneficial gut bacterium, Akkermansia. This is a mucin-degrading bacterium. But it also affects the metabolism of the host. The authors found that metformin increased the mucin-producing goblet cells.

Akkermansia muciniphila bacteria were fed to one group of mice. This group was on a high fat diet, but not on metformin. The mice showed control of their blood sugars, as did the metformin group. In other words manipulation of the gut flora composition could achieve control of the diabetic metabolism. The authors concluded that pharmacological manipulation of the gut microbiota using metformin in favor of Akkermansia might be a potential treatment for type 2 diabetes.

Effect of metformin on the gut flora

Akkermansia muciniphila bacteria comprise 3%-5% of the gut flora. It does not form spores and is strictly anaerobe, in other words oxygen destroys it. This is the reason why it is difficult to take it as a supplement. It is mostly growing in the mucous of the epithelium layer of the gut. The highest number of Akkermansia bacteria is found in the colon, lesser amounts in the small intestine of all mammalian species including the human race.

Here are the effects of metformin on Akkermansia:

Metformin increases the Akkermansia bacteria count both in a Petri dish as well as in the gut of experimental mice. This suggests that metformin acts like a growth factor for Akkermansia.

Metformin increased the count of Akkermansia bacteria by 18-fold up to a maximum of 12.44% (up from the normal 3-5%) of all of the gut bacteria.

Researchers observed that the mucin layer of the lining of the gut in metformin treated mice was thicker. This suggests that the thickness of the mucin layer plays a role in increasing the Akkermansia count.

Effect of the gut on the body’s metabolism

Other researchers have investigated how a high fat diet can change the composition of the gut bacteria, which in turn are altering the body’s metabolism. Essentially a shift in the bowel flora can increase the gut’s permeability. This is called leaky gut syndrome. It leads to absorption of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from bad bacteria in the gut. The end result is endotoxemia in the blood. This causes systemic inflammation in the body. Insulin resistance and obesity develop and this can be followed by type 2 diabetes. It is interesting to note that the effects of a high fat diet that led to these changes can be reversed by increasing Akkermansia bacteria in the gut or by treating with metformin.

An interesting mouse experiment showed that the changes that take place in the gut bacteria with cold exposure could be transferred to germ-free mice with no gut flora. This changed their metabolism proving that gut bacteria have profound influences on the metabolism. The fact that the gut bacteria have a profound influence on the metabolism is not only true for animals, but also for humans.

Akkermansia Facts

Here are a few facts about the Akkermansia bacteria.

The amounts of Akkermansia bacteria in the gut are inversely related to how fat we are. This is measured by the body mass index (BMI). Fat people have less Akkermansia in their guts.

Increased Akkermansia reduces synthesis of sugar in the liver (gluconeogenesis)

We have 10 times more bacteria in the gut than we have cells in our body. The Akkermansia percentage of the gut flora can be decreased from antibiotics or food that contains traces of antibiotics. If there is a lack of Akkermansia species, there is more gut permeability, causing LPS increase and causing increase of inflammation in the body. This translates into high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, and degenerative neurological diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease or MS. But it can also cause inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune diseases.

What increases Akkermansia?

We can increase Akkermansia bacteria in the gut by eating Oligofructose-enriched prebiotics. Oligofructose belongs into the inulin type soluble fibers. It is found in a variety of vegetables and plants. This includes onions, garlic, chicory, bananas, Jerusalem artichokes, navy beans and wheat. But wheat can be problematic. Clearfield wheat is the modern wheat variety which is now grown worldwide. It is much richer in gluten and can cause problems with gut permeability.

Eating lots of vegetables and fruit will give you enough of oligofructose to maintain a healthy percentage of Akkermansia in your gut bacteria.

Metformin as pointed out earlier can be used as pharmacotherapy. But it must be stressed that the use of metformin for dysmetabolic syndrome is off-label. There are real side effects of metformin. Lactic acidosis with an unusual tiredness, dizziness and severe drowsiness can develop. Also chills, muscle pain, blue/cold skin and fast/difficult breathing has been described. Slow/irregular heartbeat, vomiting, or diarrhea, stomach pains with nausea are also listed under side effects.

Effects Of Metformin On The Gut Microbiome

Conclusion

Our gut bacteria are important for us, more so than you may be aware of. An anaerobe bacterium, Akkermansia makes up 3%-5% of the gut flora. This bacterium lives in the mucous layer of the lining of the gut and ensures that the gut wall is tight. When these bacteria are lacking (due to consumption of junk foods) the gut wall becomes leaky, which is why this condition is called “leaky gut syndrome”. Irritating toxic substances can now leak into the blood stream and lipopolysaccharides are among them. This causes inflammation in the gut wall, but can go over into the blood vessels and the rest of the body including the brain. High blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and degenerative neurological diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease or MS can develop from the inflammation. But it may also cause inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune diseases.

Eating lots of vegetables and fruit will give you enough of oligofructose to maintain a healthy percentage of Akkermansia in your gut bacteria. In particular, onions, garlic, chicory, bananas, Jerusalem artichokes and navy beans provide lots of oligofructose to support Akkermansia in your gut bacteria.

As pointed out earlier metformin can be used as pharmacotherapy of dysmetabolic syndrome. But it must be stressed that the use of metformin is off-label. It is also important to remember, that with effects there are side effects of metformin.

It may be news to you, how close the health of the gut is connected to our overall health. With the knowledge that food can be your medicine, choose your foods wisely. Add some or all of the above named foods that help you support beneficial gut bacteria, and take care of your health!

Dr. Ludwig gave a lecture about how to avoid being hungry at a conference in Las Vegas. The actual topic was “Always Hungry?” I attended the 24th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine (Dec. 9-11, 2016) in Las Vegas where this lecture was given. Dr. Ludwig is a Harvard-based endocrinologist who has been researching weight loss methods and obesity for over 20 years. Here is a list of his major publications.

Dr. Ludwig stated that the low fat/high carb diet popular in the1980’s until the early 2000’s was misguided and probably even harmful. The theory at that time was that obesity was caused by too much saturated fat. This has since been proven to be wrong. Instead it has been proven that increased sugar intake is responsible for the obesity wave.

General information about weight gain

The carbohydrate-insulin model states that without insulin you cannot gain weight, because in order to store fat in fatty tissue you need insulin to transport fatty acids across the cell membrane of fat cells.

In this context it is important to note that high glycemic index food increases the blood sugar. This leads to stimulated insulin production, and the liver converts the extra sugar into fatty acids that get deposited as fat in fatty tissue.

The glycemic load from a person’s diet is the single best predictor for a rising blood sugar level. After food intake the blood sugar goes up, glucagon goes up, epinephrine goes up within 4 hours. It is the epinephrine, which after 4 hours makes you hungry again.

The nucleus accumbens is the addiction center. At 4 hours after a high glycemic index milk shake the nucleus accumbens was stimulated in 12 subjects of a double blind trial.

The nucleus accumbens does not work in isolation. It is not only involved in food satisfaction, but also in sexual satisfaction and even plays a role in satisfaction that some people get from playing video games.

Low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean or low-fat diet

In an Israeli study from the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008 investigators were interested to find out which diet was helping people to lose most weight. h

322 moderately obese subjects that were aged 52 years on average were randomized to one of the following diet groups.

They compared

a low fat diet (Atkins type, restricted calorie) with a

Mediterranean diet (low carb, restricted-calorie) and a

Low fat/high carb diet (low fat, non-restricted-calorie)

What was the result? The mean weight losses were: 2.9 kg (low fat group), 4.4 kg (Mediterranean diet group), and 4.7 kg (low fat/high carb group). Of the 272 participants who had completed the intervention after two years of the study the weight loss was 3.3 kg, 4.6 kg, and 5.5 kg in the same sequence as above.

The ratio of total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which is a measure for the heart attack risk, was examined next. It was 20% lower from the baseline in group 2 (Mediterranean diet group). The low fat groups (group 1 and 3) were 12% lower from the baseline.

36 subjects had diabetes. There was a clear winner with respect to lower fasting blood sugar and insulin levels, namely the Mediterranean diet (group 2).

The authors concluded that the Mediterranean diet is preferable to low fat diets as they have shown an improvement in lipid profiles and in control of diabetes.

The “POUNDS LOST” study

This was a 2-year study that investigated 4 different lower calorie diets to help people lose weight. Despite the significant difference in diet composition, these 811 free-living overweight or obese adults ages 30-70 from Boston, MA and Baton Rouge, LA lost 16 pounds at 6 months and 9 pounds at the end of two years. The diets were 1) low fat (20%) or 2) high fat (40%) 3) average protein (15%) or 4) high protein (25% of total calories).

The authors concluded that any reduced, calorie-controlled diet would help obese or overweight people to achieve weight loss that lasts. It is interesting that it did not matter whether the diet was low or high in fat, or had low or high protein content. What did matter was that all diets were low in sugar.

Sugar is the driving force

Dr. Ludwig pointed out that without insulin you couldn’t gain weight. High glycemic index food increases blood sugar. The glycemic load is the single best predictor to indicate whether a person will gain weight or lose weight when this food is consumed. It is an irony that in the 1980’s and 1990’s the obesity wave was created by the wrong assumption that a low fat/high carb diet would be heart healthy. We have abundant data available that show otherwise: high sugar content of food brings the calorie count up as everybody can read on the food labels.This will lead to weight increase, which has been abundantly proven. Sugar also stimulates your nucleus accumbens, the food addiction center. As you probably know it is extremely difficult to get out of this food addiction cycle unless you cut out sugar. You even need to go one step further and include many starchy foods that will within 30 minutes of digesting them turn into sugar. Your system makes no difference whether you eat a few teaspoons of sugar or two slices of white bread. The response of your pancreas is insulin, which gladly stores the fatty substances your liver made as fat.

How to get out of the vicious food cycle

As the quoted publications and many other ones have shown, it only matters that you limit your refined carb intake. You can vary the fat content and you can vary the protein content and still lose weight provided you watch the low carb intake. You also need portion control, which is a given! Study glycemic index and glycemic load sites on the Internet. The links I provided are just some examples. The more you educate yourself about carbs, the better for you. Note that many fruit and vegetables belong to the low-glycemic load/index foods. Avoid the high glycemic index foods like dates and cornflakes. Stick to low-glycemic index foods, which are less than 55. With regard to low-glycemic load food the values should be below 10.

The Mediterranean diet is a very desirable diet, which has been proven to be anti-inflammatory.

Conclusion

I have summarized the content of a talk given by Dr. Ludwig. We learnt from this that sugar and refined carbs are the driving force that leads to “feeling hungry”. This stimulates your nucleus accumbens, the food addiction center. Let’s assume that a person is obese or overweight and wants to lose some weight. You need to start by being strict with yourself. Cut out sugar and high-glycemic foods. This will remove the food addiction factor that keeps you going back to the wrong, high calorie foods. You will also consume more low calorie vegetables and fruit, which have more fiber that fills you up. Once you are used to the new way of eating, there is no need to count calories. I recommend that you weigh yourself daily on body composition scales and record the results. This allows you to monitor your body mass index (BMI), your weight, your fat percentage, and your muscle percentage. Typically you will lose 2 to 3 pounds per week on such a low-calorie diet. Later the weight loss will slow down to 1 to 2 weeks per week until you reach your goal. Don’t go lower than a BMI of 21.0 to 22.0 and discuss your goal with your doctor.

The neurologist, Dr. David Perlmutter gave a keynote address where he pointed out that gut bacteria can protect your brain. The topic of his actual talk was “Rewrite your brain’s destiny” and the venue was the 24th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine (Dec. 9-11, 2016) in Las Vegas. Many of the talks centered around the gut microbiome. In this talk Dr. Perlmutter stressed the fact that the right mix of gut bacteria will protect your brain, while the wrong mix can make you sick. There were many slides, but too much information to mention all of details of the talk here. I will summarize the broad outline of Dr. Perlmutter’s presentation and emphasize the practical implications this has for everyday life to prevent degenerative brain diseases.

A few facts

Did you know that the brain uses 25% of the body’s energy, but has only a 3% of the body’s weight?

The gut flora has trillions of gut bacteria with its own DNA material. 99% of the DNA material in our body comes from the gut bacteria and the bacteria on our skin surface; only 1% of the entire DNA in the body is your own DNA. We are eating for 100 trillion bacteria, but if they are good bacteria they provide us with important vitamins and they produce molecules that stimulate our immune system.

This means we better have bacteria in our guts that are friendly, not the bad bacteria that can cause us problems. An Italian study determined the gut flora of children in central Africa (Burkina Faso) and compared the gut flora to children from developed countries in Europe. There was a significant difference with the African children having a healthy microbiome in the gut and the children from developed Europe having unhealthy gut bacteria. This is important new information. Many other research papers have established that leaky gut syndrome and autoimmune diseases are linked to dysbiosis, which is the name for the unhealthy microbiome in the gut.

Chronic inflammation

Dr. Perlmutter showed several slides where literature was cited showing that chronic inflammation in the civilized world is increasing. He also showed that dysbiosis (unhealthy gut bacteria taking over) is also increasing. On several slides Dr. Perlmutter showed that in civilized countries like Iceland, Denmark, Germany, the US, Japan and others the bacterial diversity of the gut bacteria in people was vastly reduced compared to the diversity of gut bacteria of people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria or rural India. The same countries that have diminished gut bacterial diversity (dysbiosis) also have the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease. On the other hand the same countries with diverse gut bacteria have a low incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. When infestation with parasites was examined there was also a parallel between increased parasitic stress and low Alzheimer’s disease rates, again in countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria or rural India. The same countries where gut dysbiosis was present the parasitic infestation was low.

Further research has established that gut dysbiosis leads to an inflammatory condition of the gut where lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from gut bacteria are absorbed causing inflammatory reactions within the body.

At the same time this leaky gut syndrome can cause obesity and leakage in the gut/brain barrier as indicated in this link. The result is neuroinflammation, cognitive impairment and vulnerability to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Our most dreaded brain diseases come from inflammation: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, autism, multiple sclerosis etc. These are degenerative brain disorders due to chronic inflammation. If you eat a lot of red meat, sausages and processed foods your gut microbiome will undergo negative changes. If you eat healthy food with lots of vegetables, fruit and you cut out sugar and too many starches, you have a healthy microbiome, which develops a robust immune system. We have to rethink the gut/brain connection and learn how to prevent these chronic illnesses.

Obesity and gut dysbiosis

In the link above it was shown that obesity is associated with inflammation. It was also shown with MRI scans that the part in the brain, called hippocampus was shriveled up (atrophied). This is a typical sign of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The investigators also confirmed with mental health functional tests that these patients had cognitive decline.

Another study also noticed that in a group of obese patients the hippocampus part of the brain was shriveled up the more obese people were. Obesity is associated with dysbiosis of the gut flora.

Practical application: the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet are both healthy, balanced diets, strikingly different from the Standard American diet. In a study the hypothesis was tested whether the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet would postpone dementia in a group of elderly patients. The answer was: yes, the hypothesis is true.

What does gut dysbiosis do?

It was shown in mice that chronic inflammation of the gut through ingestion of an irritant (dextran sodium sulfate) led to reduced new nerve growth in the hippocampus compared to control animals. It only took 29 days to show a marked difference between experimental and control animals in terms of reduced growth in the nerve cells of the hippocampus, the center of cognitive control.

The negative mediators were inflammatory kinins released from the gut wall and affecting the brain.

Antibiotic treatments and antibiotic residues in milk, milk products, meat, but also in all GMO foods are the irritants of the gut wall in humans. The antibiotics change the gut flora and lead to dysbiosis, which then causes gut wall inflammation and the cascade of events described above. The new finding is that GMO food contains RoundUp (they are “Roundup ready” crops). The herbicide Roundup was originally patented as an antibiotic and still leads to significant dysbiosis. Dr. Perlmutter urged the audience to buy organic food as the only method to reduce our exposure to Roundup. Roundup contributes to causing celiac disease and gluten intolerance in addition to exposure to the modern wheat (Clearfield wheat). The FDA is starting to do testing on foods for Roundup (glyphosate).

If things are sounding bad for Roundup, it only gets worse: Roundup has now been linked to causing cancer. In medicine it usually takes some time before definite action is taken. The agriculture industry is so deeply entrenched in the use of Roundup; I suspect that denial will be the first line of defense. My first line of defense in turn is to stick to organic food.

To sum up: Roundup and the Standard American diet lead to dysbiosis in the gut, which causes leaky gut syndrome. This causes inflammation with the release of cytokines and LPS from the gut wall to the blood. These substances cross the blood/brain barrier and lead to inflammation in the brain. This affects the hippocampus with the classical sign of shrinkage. But Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, autism in children and Alzheimer’s disease in older people are all caused by chronic inflammation. There are three more brain-related diseases that are related to gut inflammation: stroke, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Dr. Perlmutter spent some time explaining that antibiotic overuse even leads to an increase of breast cancer as a Danish study has shown. Antibiotic use showed a linear increase of breast cancer as a result of increased antibiotic amounts used. The highest group had a twofold risk compared to a control group with no antibiotic use. Dr. Perlmutter interpreted this to indicate that chronic gut inflammation can even cause a disease like breast cancer.

What can we do to diversify our gut bacteria?

Exercise: A recent study has shown that regular exercise is associated with a diversified gut flora. The reason seems to be the production of butyrate with exercise, which leads to a diversified gut flora. There are reduced LPS levels (lipopolysaccharides from gut bacteria) in people with a higher fitness score.

Eat a DASH diet or the Mediterranean diet as indicated above.

Avoid GMO foods because of the presence of Roundup, which functions like an antibiotic and leads to gut bacteria dysbiosis.

Remember “Antibiotics are weapons of mass microbial destruction”. If you need to take them be careful that you rebuild your gut flora with probiotics. Use of antibiotics increases the risk of type-2 diabetes by 1.53-fold. It also causes a quadrupling of Alzheimer’s disease.

A woman should consider natural childbirth whenever possible, as with a vaginal birth the child is “anointed with gut bacteria”. Vaginally delivered children remain healthier than children delivered by Cesarean section for several years.

Acid-suppressing medications and NSAIDs (anti-inflammatory medication for arthritis) can also lead to dysbiosis. Proton pump inhibitors increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 44%.

Prebiotic fiber can prevent Alzheimer’s. Probiotics do the same.

Avoid sugar: even the Oompa Loompa knew that “If you eat sugar, you get fat” as this YouTube video shows. And obesity is associated with gut dysbiosis with the associated higher risk of degenerative brain diseases.

In severe, persistent cases of gut dysbiosis a fecal transplant can be considered by your gastroenterologist. This procedure is done in more than 500 hospitals in the US.

Gut Bacteria Can Protect Your Brain

Conclusion

The diversity of gut bacteria is immensely important. As discussed, in rural areas of the world there is gut bacteria diversity. In civilized parts of the world dysbiosis of the gut flora frequently occurs. This can lead to gut inflammation and the inflammation eventually gets internalized and can even reach the brain. These are the points to remember: exercise; avoid GMO foods, use prebiotics and probiotics. Avoid antibiotics; also avoid meat from animals that were fed antibiotics for faster growth. Don’t eat processed foods and avoid sugar. A healthy gut creates a healthy body, and this includes a healthy brain as well.

Dr. Ray Schilling

Dr. Ray Schilling born in Tübingen, Germany and Graduated from Eberhard-Karls-University Medical School, Tuebingen in 1971. Once Post-doctoral cancer research position holder at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto, is now a member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M). [About Dr. Ray Schilling …]